Film noir is one of the great movie genres of Hollywood’s Golden Age, denoting a style of filmmaking that encapsulated the darkest elements of the human condition. The noir genre was defined by movies which end in the bleakest terms, lacking any semblance of redemption for their heroes, supporting characters, or humanity in general.
Not every film noir has a dark ending. In many cases, the genre’s central heroes came out on top, in accordance with Hollywood conventions at the time. But some of the most underrated noir movies of the 1940s and 1950s feature devastating conclusions, which stun us into feeling a little more pessimistic about the world around us.
These endings are sH๏τ with the kind of stark lightning, subversive camerawork, melancholy soundtracks, and fatalistic dialogue that made the noir genre so influential on the cinema that came after it. From the French New Wave and New Hollywood auteurs to Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan, film noir’s darkest movie endings gave rise to a whole new kind of filmmaking.
10
Gun Crazy
1950
Gun Crazy might not be that well-known today, but it’s one of film noir’s most important movies, which has had a huge impact on modern cinema. Scripted by Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted screenwriter extraordinaire Bryan Cranston played in one of his best movie roles, this film feels viscerally dark from start to finish.
Its ending is one of the best visualizations of noir’s thematic bleakness, portraying fugitive criminals Bart and Laurie immersed in a thick fog, looking to their left and right in paranoia. The lovers both die tragically when Bart shoots Laurie by mistake as she suddenly loses her nerve with the police approaching, with the result that he’s fired on by officers.
The movie concludes with the two police officers simply staring at the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. There’s absolutely nothing to relieve the scene’s overwhelming sense of pathos.
9
Detour
1945
The tragedy of Edgar G. Ulmer’s indie noir movie Detour is heightened by its understated ending, in which an awful accident befalls the central couple of the story, Al and Vera. During a drunken argument, Al accidentally strangles Vera by pulling a telephone cord that he’s unaware she’s wrapped around her neck through a closed motel room door.
Ulmer portrays Al’s realization that he’s killed Vera as a somber moment, without panic or hysteria, and the final moments of the movie simply convey the despairing thoughts running through Al’s head. Its last line, which meditates on the misfortune of being chosen by fate, is among the best quotes in any film noir movie:
Fate, or some mysterious force, can put the finger on you or me for no good reason at all.
Detour doesn’t overplay its hand in depicting the final, tragic twist of its story. Yet it leaves us feeling utterly gloomy, all the same.
8
Cry of the City
1948
The tragic vision of little Tony Rome crying his heart out in the back of a police car at the end of Cry of the City, after his big brother Martin, played by Richard Conte, has been sH๏τ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, would be enough to break many viewers. Tony spends the movie idolizing Martin, who’s leading him down a criminal path in life.
Director Robert Siodmak makes a point of holding the camera on Tony’s face for 18 seconds in the moments after Martin dies. The teenage boy is too stunned to show any emotion, so he just stands there, staring at his brother’s body. This carefully crafted pause in the action makes the moment when Tony breaks down in tears even more powerful.
7
The Stranger
1946
One of the three noir movies directed by Orson Welles, The Stranger is arguably Welles’ most underrated film. It’s the pitch-black tale of a Nazi fugitive being hunted down in the United States, which ends with the villainous Franz Kindler being confronted about his crimes by the UN war crimes agent who’s been hunting him down.
After attempting to kill his wife, who’s been made aware of Kindler’s role in the Holocaust, at the top of a church clock tower, the villain is impaled on the clock’s sword motif, and falls to his death. This ending is one of the most graphically violent of any noir movie, and is emblematic of The Stranger’s overall sinister tone.
6
Odds Against Tomorrow
1959
Odds Against Tomorrow is one of the last movies considered part of the film noir genre ever made. It stars Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan alongside Shelley Winters, who famously features in all-time great noir film The Night of the Hunter. Belafonte and Ryan play partners in crime who end up fighting each other while they’re chased down by the police.
There can be a funny side to film noir’s cynical worldview, as Odds Against Tomorrow demonstrates.
In the movie’s climactic final sequence, the tension ramps up to fever pitch as the two criminals climb to the top of a depot’s fuel tank, which subsequently explodes, killing them both. Not above a dark joke, Odds Against Tomorrow finishes with a sH๏τ of a sign at the entrance to the depot reading “ᴅᴇᴀᴅ End”.
There can be a funny side to film noir’s cynical worldview, as this instance demonstrates. Other movies might ordinarily place this sH๏τ of the sign before the climax to engender a tragic sense of dramatic irony. But Odds Against Tomorrow does it the noir way round, exemplifying the genre’s caustic sense of humor in times of darkness.
5
Out of the Past
1947
One of noir specialist Robert Mitchum’s most iconic movies, Out of the Past is up there with the very best works of film noir. Inevitably, it ends with Mitchum’s character being killed for trying to do the right thing. Even worse, the woman he really loved is left believing that he abandoned her for the murderer he was trying to turn in to the police when she sH๏τ him.
Out of the Past was one of five noir films in which Robert Mitchum starred between 1946 and 1947, alone.
In terms of a dark outlook on society, it doesn’t get much starker than Out of the Past’s final sequence of events. Both Mitchum’s Jeff and Virginia Huston’s Ann choose love and morality, but instead of being rewarded for their decisions, the movie punishes them in agonizing fashion.
4
The Killers
1946
The Killers stars one of film noir’s best and most iconic actors, Ava Gardner, who plays the key role in the movie’s unbelievably dark finale. As Gardner’s character Kitty sits beside the body of her dying lover Jim Colfax, instead of pleading for him to live or lamenting his death, she begs him for a false testimony of her innocence.
The Killers was Ava Gardner’s second noir movie, after Whistle Stop, which was also released in 1946.
Kitty’s absence of care or feelings for the man she supposedly loves, as she desperately tries to save herself while showing a complete lack of concern for his life, is far more disturbing than any of the crimes she’s committed. The more hysterically she protests her innocence as he breathes his last breath, the more we lose faith in humanity.
3
Shadow of a Doubt
1943
Alfred Hitchcock’s first foray into noir, Shadow of a Doubt is essential viewing for noir movie fans as well as newcomers to the genre. Starring Joseph Cotten in the unlikely role of a double-faced killer, this work features a masterclass from the actor as well as some of Hitchcock’s best camerawork.
Cotten gently brings the fear factor into play during the course of the movie, leading into his character’s attempt to murder his own niece with the kind of exquisite poise that must have delighted the master of suspense behind the camera. Cotten’s Uncle Charlie meets a well-deserved end in a thrilling climax.
He’s then given a completely undeserved hero’s sendoff by the locals of his family’s town, who’ve turned a blind eye to his villainous actions. This brutally dark ending to Shadow of a Doubt is film noir’s greatest indictment on the whole of humanity.
2
The Breaking Point
1950
If there’s a bleaker ending to a noir movie than The Breaking Point, I haven’t seen it. The movie’s central hero, Harry Morgan, who’s played by noir great John Garfield, dies slowly from wounds sustained in a shootout with a criminal gang, as his wife weeps and young daughters weep over him.
In The Breaking Point’s final sH๏τ of Wesley’s son looking helplessly around the docks for his missing father, we see all the cruelty in the world laid bare.
To top this crushing conclusion, the son of Wesley, Harry’s partner on his boat, appears on the scene. Wesley was killed and thrown overboard by the gang before Harry saw them off, but his son isn’t to know that. As he looks helplessly around the docks for his missing father, we see all the cruelty in the world laid bare.
1
Sunset Boulevard
1950
It might seem strange that a noir movie which strays into comedy should have the genre’s darkest ending. But Sunset Boulevard’s ending is so dark precisely because the film has a darkly comic edge to it. Desperately tragic protagonist Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson, kills the story’s narrator, William Holden’s Joe, just as he leaves her Hollywood mansion.
The disintegration of Sunset Boulevard’s protagonist is excruciating to watch, but impossible to turn away from.
Joe has just torn Norma’s ego to shreds, as he forces the aging movie actor to confront the end of her career in the limelight. Unable to reckon with the murder she’s just committed, Desmond enters a trance-like state. When the police arrive along with the world’s media looking to cover her arrest, she confuses the press cameras for a film set.
The legendary final sH๏τ of Swanson’s haunting close-up, which her character believes to be part of a movie, is darker than dozens of more ᴅᴇᴀᴅly film noir endings. The disintegration of Sunset Boulevard’s protagonist is excruciating to watch, but impossible to turn away from.
